Numbness and nerve pain after liposuction to thighs 6 months ago - advice?

It is unusual for numbness to remain after the swelling is gone from liposuction, but a sensory nerve could have been damaged with liposuction. Typically, it could take up to one year to resolve if the nerve was just bruised and not torn. It would be unusual for the nerve to be torn with liposuction unless your surgeon was very aggressive in that area.

I'm sorry to hear of the issues you are having from your liposuction procedure. Sensory changes can sometimes take up to one year to resolve. If numbness persists after that time it is generally permanent. I encourage you to speak to your surgeon about your nerve pain. This can be treated with medication to help relieve the discomfort.

Liposuction can cause temporary numbness that resolves in 2 to 3 months.

It is highly unusual for Liposuction especially if done with moderate aggressive Ness to cause long-term numbness. Liposuction can cause a temporary stripping of the fatty coating around nerves called the Mylan sheath. This typically regenerates within a couple of months restoring normal skin sensation.

It is possible that there is a coincidental neuroma or other condition causing your symptoms unrelated to liposuction despite the timing and coincidence.

Regardless, there is a little plastic surgeon can do since the numbness cannot be improved by a plastic surgery procedure.

Consider getting evaluated by a neurologist or pain management specialist.

There are conditions that can cause changes in nursing station in particular neuromas.

Even if caused by the Liposuction there is a little your plastic surgeon can do at this point.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD

I hate to say things so bluntly, but your surgeon is wrong. Liposuction can cause numbness. Liposuction is done by passing a cannula back and forth within the tissues through which nerves run to the skin. If one of these nerves is hit, it can either be totally transected or simply injured by the cannula. If it is completely divided, the numbness is somewhat permanent. It can resolve over time if the fibers from surrounding nerves move in to take its place. If the nerve was only injured, then the numbness is either relatively fleeting, returning in a week or 2 or requires regrowth of the nerve fibers from the point of injury to the skin. It sounds as if your injury was the latter. Once the nerves have grown back to the skin, you must then relearn what you are feeling and, initially, what you feel is quite unusual and occasionally painful. Nerves are very much Like a telephone cable. If someone cuts a cable and the repairman is colorblind and cannot put the cables back exactly the way they were, you then cannot call or receive calls normally. The only way the telephone company could correct this is to do so at the switchboard. Similarly, once the nerve is injured you must we learn where all the fibers are. This takes a special type of therapy known as desensitization to stop the abnormal sensation and sensibility reeducation so that you we learn where the fibers are. I suspect the areas where the numbness returned fairly quickly were the minimally damage to nerves where only the electrical impulse was interrupted and not the entire nerve fiber. If the surgeon you saw is a Plastic Surgeon, he or she should be familiar with sensibility reeducation from their hand surgery training. If not, I suggest that you see a plastic surgeon who also does hand surgery. This is correctable, but does require a little work on your part.